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Vanessa of Fernandes of Portugal has just won the 2007 Madrid BG Triathlon World Cup in the Spanish capital. Dubbed as her “second home” the 21-year-old Portuguese star has won on this course every year since the race's introduction in 2003. Using her superior strength, Fernandes managed to erase a 43 second deficit after the opening 1,500-metre swim on the tough bike course to run to her fifth consecutive Madrid world cup victory in a time of 2 hours 7 minutes and 33 seconds. It was almost a minute back to second place Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand, who managed to nip Michelle Dillon of Great Britain at the line in an exciting sprint finish.
With warm overnight temperatures, a non-wetsuit swim was called as the 54 women hit the water for the fifth round of the 2007 BG Triathlon World Cup series. A small group of women would exit the water first including Hewitt, her team mate Nicky Samuels and Annabel Luxford of Australia. The young Fernandes would be over 40 seconds back with eventual bronze medalist Dillon a further 53 second down. The small front group would not be able to coordinate a break-away however and would be swallowed up by the chase pack, being pulled by Fernandes. This pack of 12 would also choose not to work together, allowing the second chase group, containing Dillon, to pull up and form one large group of 30 women.
With no break-aways on the bike, a 10-kilometre run race would ultimately decide the victor. Fernandes, who won the recent ITU Duathlon World Championships two weeks ago, immediately pulled to the front and would never look back, despite falling in the crowded transition area, crossing the line with bloodied knees and a Portuguese flag overhead.
It would be almost another minute before Hewitt and Dillon would come into view, with last year’s silver medalist Hewitt managing to beat out the veteran Dillon in her first ever sprint finish.
Finishing in fourth and fifth were Annabel Luxford of Australia and young Elizabeth May of Luxembourg, respectively.
2007 Madrid BG Triathlon World Cup – Elite Women results
1. Fernandes, Vanessa (POR) 2:07:33
2. Hewitt, Andrea (NZL) 2:08:25 +:53
3. Dillon, Michelle (GBR) 2:08:30 +:57
4. Luxford, Annabel (AUS) 2:08:45 +1:13
5. May, Elizabeth (LUX) 2:09:09 +1:37
6. Dittmer, Anja (GER) 2:09:20 +1:47
7. Zemanova, Lenka (CZE) 2:09:21 +1:49
8. Samuels, Nicky (NZL) 2:09:26 +1:54
9. Dollinger, Eva (AUT) 2:09:29 +1:57
10. Lorblanchet, Marion (FRA) 2:10:16 +2:44
Complete results at: Triathlon.org.
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